0.12 The evia digital archive project: challenges and solutions  (Page 5/10)

While we are proud of what we have built and achieved with the EVIA Project, many challenges remain and we continue to work hard to ensure the viability of the project. In the world of the digital arts and humanities there is much talk about project sustainability, but all too often the focus is on the financial viability of the project. Sustainability encompasses many areas, and each needs to be addressed if a project is to successfully move from being just a project to being a trusted resource, a dynamic social space, or a viable channel for scholarly communication. For us, sustainability includes the areas of preservation, access, publishing, collection development, infrastructure and funding strategies.

Preservation

Preservation is another resource-intensive aspect of the project, but we see it as fundamental to our mission. It is counterproductive to invest the scholarly energy in annotation and public access if we do not properly preserve the video so that we can guarantee its availability in the foreseeable future. This is more than just a matter of long-term access. If we are going to build a scholarly publishing structure around or linked to the media, the written materials are compromised if we cannot support long-term, high-quality access to the media, and careful digital preservation ensures the migratability of the media.

Initially adopted by ethnographic scholars in the mid-1970s and widely employed by the late 1980s, video offered an inexpensive way for researchers to capture a fuller range of expressive culture—particularly music, sound and dance—than still photography or audio recordings allowed. Today many ethnographic scholars use video in their research. However, the archival shelf life of videotape is extremely short. Although based on formats similar to audiotape in principle, the density of the magnetic information on videotape and the more complex manner with which it must be retrieved result in more rapid deterioration of the signal than we see in audio. Video recording formats have also experienced a higher level of obsolescence compared to audio. Between 1990 and 2008, the formats of VHS, VHS-C, 8mm, Hi-8, and MiniDV all enjoyed popularity as recording formats for scholars. Today, MiniDV is the only one not considered an obsolete recording format, but soon it too will become obsolete as the industry rapidly moves toward non-tape solutions.

Audio archivists have come to broad consensus about digital audio preservation as described and proscribed in IASA TC-04 and in Sound Directions, Best Practices for Audio Preservation , but the equivalent has not yet been achieved for digital video preservation. Digital preservation of video within the EVIA Digital Archive Project has proceeded in the absence of broadly accepted standards and best practices. In the absence of such guidelines the Project has used the model of audio preservation as well as a careful assessment of the best way forward. We have been careful to adhere to basic digital preservation principles in our formulation of a solution to long-term digital video preservation. We also have consulted with other digital video preservation efforts around the world. Unfortunately, the rapid deterioration and obsolescence of video recordings requires that we act now to make preservation transfers rather than wait until that broad consensus is reached.